


The Awesomeness of Stickers, or How Stickers Got Charles and Erik Together

by orphan_account



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Children, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Daycare Fic, Get Together, M/M, Stickers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-11-02
Updated: 2011-11-02
Packaged: 2017-10-25 15:21:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/271801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As a child care worker, Charles has learned a lot of things. He’s learned what detergent one’s to use when cleaning up half masticated fruit and crackers; how to mend stuffed animals, and the importance of keeping spare clothes in the pantry.</p><p>The most important thing Charles has learned however, is that a sticker possesses awesome healing power.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Awesomeness of Stickers, or How Stickers Got Charles and Erik Together

 

 As a child care worker, Charles has learned a lot of things. He’s learned what detergent one’s to use when cleaning up half masticated fruit and crackers; how to mend stuffed animals, and the importance of keeping spare clothes in the pantry.

 

 The most important thing Charles has learned however, is that a sticker possesses awesome healing power.

 

 

 It doesn’t really matter what the sticker is, per se. Not to the little children. When young Sean trips and scrapes his knees and has the case of the wobbly lips, Charles could give the boy an outdated Thanksgiving Turkey sticker and he’d still be ecstatic. This is because the magic of sticker healing lies in the act of giving the sticker itself. The sticker means comfort, care, and most of all, it’s something that keeps the child’s rapt attention for ten minutes while Charles cleans up the mess, or does whatever needs to be done. Stickers always succeed, where Charles and his assistant caretaker Janos do not. Even Alex and Raven, who are six years old and deem themselves far too superior to be influenced by the creature comforts of four year olds, still succumb to Stickers.

 

 So it’s quite logical really, that when Charles finds a man with red eyes and manly tear tracks down his cheeks, on the front steps of his home that he offers the poor man a sticker. It’s an instinctive thing to do. The children of the child care center and the other workers have been his only correspondent for far too long, and Charles belatedly realizes that the Sticker may not possess the same amount of tranquil influence that it does in the X-Babies Daycare. It’s too late though, as Charles’ treacherous body has already acted of its own accord. The sticker is already unstuck.

 

 

“Would you care for a sticker?”

 

 

 The man stares at the proffered sticker that is clinging to Charles’ outstretched index finger as though it were an alien slug. It’s a Blues Clues patch; and the very best of the sheet, too. It’s as big as a half dollar coin, and Blue is panting adorably at the outside world, stamping her iconic paw-print on the tiny wall of her vinyl prison. The man stares at the sticker for a whole of two seconds, before looking up at Charles, and then at the sticker again.

 

Then the bloody sod _laughs._

It’s not a self deprecating chuckle or a smirk; he honest to god _laughs_ full out. Charles can see the man’s numerous teeth as he hunches over and wheezes like an asthmatic patient at the gum spattered sidewalk.

 

 Charles is properly mortified, cheeks red and mouth in a pout; and he whirls away from the man, his unbuttoned coat swishing angrily at his waist.

 

“There’s no need to be rude,” Charles sniffs, hurt, and stomps up the stairs to his front door. He fumbles with the keys a bit, but once he’s in the relative safety of his home, he makes sure to slam the door as dramatically hard as possible. He can still hear the formerly distraught man laughing though, and while Charles should be happy that he at least brightened the poor soul’s mood, Charles’ cheeks are still burning from shame.

 

 

Honestly. The _nerve_ of some people.

 

 

 ----------------------------------------------------

 

 

 The Blues Clues sticker was eventually placed on the corner of Charles’ folder, because it’s a high quality sticker that’s soft and squishy; and no matter what that man from yesterday thinks, stickers were still exceptional and meant for much more than being carelessly stuck on the walls of public bathrooms. Charles is at the daycare center now, and he absently runs his fingers over the sticker as he muses over yesterday’s events while the children color pictures as though their lives depend on it. Why had the man been on his doorstep in the first place? Why had the man been so distraught? Was handing out stickers to grown men ridiculous enough to warrant a fit of laughter?

 

 

 Such were the philosophical questions running through Charles’ mind, that he didn’t see little Hank trip over his feet and spill Alex’s paint set until it was too late. Pandemonium ensued. Alex shrieked and squealed and screamed, Hank cried, and both were covered in spatters of paint. Hank’s entire face and front were blue. Janos Quested, Charles’ assistant caretaker, is similarly botched with paint, but in red; and he mutely tries to no avail to calm down the speckled children.

 

 

“Y..You, Boz-o!” Alex shrieks, pronouncing the insult wrong, “You ruined my picture!”

  

And then it all goes to pot from there.

 

Hank wails loudly; and three year old Sean, who apparently has no idea as to what’s going on but finds it an apt time to cry, similarly screams at an ear splitting pitch. The noise in the room escalates rapidly, and Hank blubbers and claws at the paint on his face while Janos gets a wet towel. Angel uses Janos’ preoccupation with the others to resolutely eat paint in a manner reminiscent of Van Gogh; and Darwin smoothly adapts to the cacophonous situation by burying his head in a pouf to block out the noise. Raven shouts at Alex that his picture was stupid anyway, and holds a crying Hank. Charles is vaguely amazed at how fast a calm Art Class could turn into a screeching hell hole (four minutes).

 

The Alex’s lip starts to wobble dangerously, and sensing a tantrum on the horizon, Charles takes it as his cue to act. Alex’s tantrums were so violent that there’d be no going back once he started. It was time to take drastic measures.

 

 

Charles turned off the lights.

 

The effect is immediate. The children all shut their mouths in unison and straighten up as though rehearsed. A sniffle resounds in the silence, and Charles turns the lights back on to wide eyes.

 

“This is _not_ how big boys and girls act!” Charles says sternly, “Hank, what do we have to do when we do something wrong?”

“Apologize,” Hank sniffs.

 

“And Raven, Alex; it is bad to say words like stupid and Bozo. What do we say when we do something bad?”

“We say we’re sorry,” the two mumble.

 

“Good,” Charles says imperiously, “Now do it.”

 

 Apologies are exchanged in short order, and Charles sighs and goes to help an exhausted Janos clean up. When he sees Alex looking forlornly at his paint sopped paper, he sticks a Dora the Explorer sticker on Alex’s forehead.

 

“Don’t worry Alex,” Charles says soothingly, “I’m sure it was a wonderfully groovy picture. We’ll try again tomorrow, won’t we?”

 

 Alex nods and considerably brightens. Charles ends up giving out stickers to the other children and Janos as well, for good measure; and watches as the children recover from the shock of being scolded, and grow lively and happy again. Even Janos seems more cheerful.

 

 

See, Charles thinks. Stickers do have exceptional healing capabilities. That man from yesterday had been unappreciative probably because he had no heart.

 

 

\----------------------------------------------------

 

 

 Charles is considerably tired when he goes home that night. Raven had tried to kiss Hank on the cheek, and there had been yet another episode involving cooties. He’s absently thinking of hot chocolate and a warm bed as he’s trudging up the stairs; and so doesn’t notice the sleeping man on his steps in the dim light. He nearly steps on the man’s face as a result, and the man lets out a hoarse cry of alarm. Charles _does_ step on the man’s arm in his shock as he falls backwards on his rump, and several minutes of exclamations of pain and tangled limbs ensue. When Charles finally regains his proper footing, his hair is all in disarray. He hurriedly starts to apologize to the man he nearly bowled over, when he realizes it’s that laughing chap from yesterday afternoon.

 

 Charles immediately pinches his lips into a straight line of red ribbon.

 

 

“I am sorry, my friend,” he says in a clipped tone, and makes a move towards his front door that’s aborted by a strong grip on his left pants leg.

 

“Wait,” the man says, “I’m hurt. You hurt me.”

 

 Charles raises an eyebrow.

 

“Don’t you have something to comfort me with? Like a sticker, perhaps?” The man continues, then breaks out laughing and nearly falls down the concrete steps. Charles meanly wishes that he had.

 

“I’m not sure you’d appreciate the gesture well enough, judging from your earlier actions.”

 

“Oh no, I’m sure I would,” the man says slyly, and Charles wonders if he’s being hit on. By an attractive looking, yes, but homeless, uncouth man that, above all laughed at his stickers and nearly made Charles doubt their power. That was unforgivable. Charles sniffs angrily in response, and digs through his pack to retrieve the most eye-watering, garish sticker that he can find. It’s a large, red Angry Birds sticker that Charles can sympathize with and he un-sticks it in a hurry. He then thumbs it on to the man’s forehead before he can say anything, and runs into his house and slams the door once more.

 

“My name’s Erik!” the apparently homeless man shouts after Charles, “Erik with a ‘k’; Erik Lehnsherr!”

 

The deep throated chuckles follow Charles all throughout the house, and into the kitchen.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback is appreciated; still a beginner writer here :) Additionally, Real Life is Not Giving me a break, so updates will be stilted and erratic.  
> I wanted to be better at pacing this time, but I guess my fics will always be short in length.


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